Humans migrated into Europe about 40000 years ago.(Buren hult 1994). They used two different tool traditions at this time. People south of the Sahara had the same Middle Stone Age tools between 200000 and 40000 years ago. The first migrants into Europe transmitted this tradition. In North Africa and Europe, a new tool tradition started 40000 years ago. These are associated with early Cro-Magnan cultures, called the Aterian culture in Tunisia and Libya. North Africa had more rain at this time and was lush and full of large game. Tool points with tangs that allowed the attachment onto a spear or arrow first appeared at this time. The bow and arrow are believed to have been invented here. This North African Aterian tool culture lasted for 20000 years. Smaller points such as those used in arrows developed. Tiny microliths (small barbs) of flint, used to mount in rows on bone or wood sickles are also found, showing that they reaped wild grasses.
Eventually this culture led to the early Egyptian Qadan people of 15000 to 13000 years ago. Humanity was on the brink of early civilization, these people hunting and fishing and gathering seeds from wild grasses. Grinding stones found from this period show that they ground down seeds. This dependence rapidly led to agriculture.
First Homo Sapiens Sapients in North Africa and surviving lineages of HSS in Afro-Asians, probably from Mesopotamia or the Levant. There are several Mt DNA studies which show that the first members of the species Homo Sapiens Sapient to inhabit North Africa and to produce lineages which carry on in the region (and/or in the adjacent Canary Islands) until the present entered some 30-65000 years ago and contained within their population the original portion of the haplogroup M which would later lead to the M1 subclades. M is one of only two haplogroups, which made it out Africa in the original Homo Sapien Sapient expansion some 65-75000 years ago and is generally associated with Asian peoples. The other of the haplogroups is N which is generally associated with Eurasian peoples.
This expansion coincides with the region’s Aterian culture, which began over 85000 ybp and ended some 22000 to 10000 ybp, but which may have continued in some remote areas of North-West Africa and its adjacent islands until historic times. Some of the earliest sites of the Aterian can be attributed to Homo erectus, who inhabited the coasts from 200000 ybp or earlier. There are differences in the eastern and western branches of the industry, and up until about 45000 years ago some of the Aterian lithics can be attributed to Neanderthal man, whose fossils have been found in the far eastern portion of the region. Man is thought to have entered North Africa 85000 ybp or later, and haplogroup M came with it at that time or upto 55000 years later, however, only those peoples carrying the strand of haplogroup M, which would later mutate into M1 while in still in Africa, have continued living in the area until today. Ancestral “African M” also spread into (or was originally from) east Africa at about the same time as North Africa.
R1* has two sister clades, R1a and R1b, which are the so called “Cro-Magnan” haplogroups and these or their common ancestor accompanied by the first Homo Sapien Sapient men into Europe somewhere between 45000 to 25000 years ago.
The long era of the tribal, egalitarian society of the Neolithic ended between 4000 and 3000 BC. Archaeologists and Anthropologists have documented that early society of Mesopotamia had been guided by women and had a Goddess as deity. During the Neolithic, the man had been in charge of all the work outside the tribal area, being away for long periods of time doing herding, hunting, fishing, exploring etc. This all changed because of a number advances and happenings. The rapid desertification of the Sahara caused a huge migration of the tribes living in these formerly productive grazing lands. Many migrated to areas of excellent soils where high quality of agriculture was possible, such as flood plains of the Fertile Crescent and Indus valley, and the loess areas of southern Russia. Metalworking and mining were invented, the camel and horse were domesticated, star navigation and ocean travel were perfected and all continents of the world had been discovered. The growing population demanded improvements in food production with a result that over-population pressures and conflicts over land and resources developed. The settlement of the Saharan tribes in areas of agricultural potential kept the men at home, demanding more control over tribal organization. Centralized religious control from Sahara had become difficult to impossible to maintain and a breakdown of the old gylanic society was inevitable.
The first change made by the men, who were now in charge of the tribe, was to arrange of the annual voluntary sacrifice of a special young man (Tammuz), which had been felt essential to bring back the summer and nature’s productivity. He had experienced the high position of king, a bridge between the deity and the people, wearing purple robe for six months after participating in the sacred marriage around May 1, and was supposed to have gone to his death November 1, but refused, as was so well documented in the Gilgamesh epic. Thus it ended the female leadership.
The migrating Peoples from the Sahara appear to have created the high civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Indus Valley. Several archaeologists working in Sumeria concluded that the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations appeared to have no primitive base locally; i.e. the people arrived there from elsewhere with all the knowledge of formation of a civilization. They have experienced this civilization in their place of origin, possibly in the neighborhood of Lake Chad, where extensive irrigation canal systems have been spotted (NASA photography) and standing stones are still prominent. The original Saharan language is clearly detectable from all the early civilizations likewise Summer, Akkad, Old Egypt, Dravidian and languages like Hebrew, Sanskrit etc.
Somewhere in the Sahara, the center of the first civilization on earth had developed and all people were taught the same highly developed language calls Saharan/Basque (from Nyland). Those migrants who subsequently settled in the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia, the Ukraine and the Indus Valley therefore all spoke the same Saharan language. In the areas where male domination had taken hold Priests/ Scholars were assigned to develop new languages, which had no likeness to the original. The people settling in the Indus valley taught the Saharan language to the prevalent population which today is spoken in the unmanipulated Dravidian family languages. The first efforts of manipulating the foundation language were probably made in Sumeria and at first were quite unorganized, some using the original Saharan vowel-interlocking agglutination formula while others just put original words together, or combination of both systems. Sumerians and Akkadian words and names are assembled by scholarly manipulation from Saharan/Basque vocabulary. The modern Basque-English dictionary by Gorkha Aulestia is still perfectly suitable to translate these 4800 years old name and words. Notations on stone, bone and clay have been known from as far back as 16000 bce, according to Marija Gimbutas in “The language of Goddess”. True writing came from the oldest known clay tablets in the city of Uruk sometime before 3000 bce in a Pictographic script. A Goddess ‘Nisa’ba’/Saraswati (Indian version?) (I create written documents) is given credit for the invention of writing. Sumerians is closely tied in with Akkadian language, which is supposed to be a Semitic language. Akkadian myths were told in Sumerian, Hittite, Hurian and Akkadian. Sumerian words have few, or no, vowels, but Akkadian words to have considered Sumerian to be a classical language.
Dravidian language was closest to Basque by far. Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, English, German etc are made up almost 100% by formulae manipulation and mutilation of the Basque/Saharan language. (Nyland and Dr. Lahovary).
A large numbers of people have driven from the once well-populated North African area starting around 10000 BCE due to unprecedented scale of calamity. Some of the tribes living along the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean shores had developed advanced skills in boat building, sailing techniques and star navigation, which specialized knowledge was carefully guarded by the families involved. They became later known to the Egyptians as the Sea Peoples. Other tribes in the interior were dependent upon the Sea Peoples for ocean transport for search and settlement to a new homeland. All of these people had the same Goddess religion, a universal Saharan language and strong oral traditions. Saharan language was the only highly developed language in the entire world at that time, the product of a marvelous oral educational tradition. They were well prepared for pioneering anywhere in the wide world. As Dr.Lahovary noted: “One of the most common linguistic phenomena is the case with which a new language can impose itself on vast masses, even if spoken only by a relatively small minority, should this minority have political power or the prestige of a superior civilization”. To political power and civilization, we should add the vibrant Goddess religion of the North Africans. The present evidence of significant remnants of the Saharan language in distant parts of the world proves that their lineages took hold wherever they settled.
All of these People believed totally in reincarnation, which meant that a person would live on a newborn irrespective of body died by one’s all the knowledge and experienced. Risk taking was part of the joy of living. They had no about history because they were history themselves. A son would always follow in the footsteps of his personification, whether farmer, ocean navigator, herdsman or fisherman, a system which created enormous stability in their civilization, and which was also the basic for the later casteism. The women were responsible for the home front, the men for the out-service, included long distance exploration, ocean travel and trading, whaling, fishing etc.
The Dravidian people and their acquired language and religion can be explained in two main theories. Most of the North-African were white-skinned, but in or near Ethiopia there lived a population of dark-skinned and black people (and they are still there) who did not have usual Negro features. This may have been the population that gave rise to the Dravidians. They were one of the last tribes who forced to migrate due to extreme drought prevailed in their area.
Another theory is that the immigrants from North Africa were Caucasian, who entered the land of the indigenous people of India and introduced their language and religion. This quite small population of immigrants mixed with the dark skinned local population and in time white characteristic were submerged. Sailing towards east around 3000-4000 BCE, they had found Mesopotamia already fully occupied, so they settled in the fertile Indus Valley, where they built their villages, and around 2500 BCE they developed into major cities like Mohenjodaro and Harappa. The Goddess religion was retained by them and their further development into characteristic and artistic religion pushes towards as of today. The Saharan language was mixed with the indigenous languages of the People and over time, these are grown into a number of related languages.
Basques and Dravidians had never been in physical contact with each other, living in widely separated areas. Therefore, the language they shared with the Dravidians must have been acquired from a common, North African source. The Basques and Berbers have a special characteristic that the Dravidians do not have: Rh-negative blood. If these tribes had ever been in close contact, that characteristic would have been clear today.
Around 1800 BCE, the flourishing land of the Indus civilization attracted a large land-migration of tall, Caucasian herdsmen, coming from Near East or North Africa. They brought with them a new religion that they had created by turning the Goddess religion inside out, where the old society was a gentle and matrilineal organized, yet free society, the new comers patriarchal warriors and extremely dictatorial, they promoted writing and forbade the maintenance of the ancient traditions. A start was made with the creation of a new language, later called Samskrta (Sanskrit), and eventually the speaking of the universal language was forbidden. Under this new order, the formerly highly respected and independent women became the property of fathers and husbands, to be given away, used, punished or disposed of at will, never to be without supervision of a man. For the resident Dravidians the choice was either to adopt the newcomers’ way or slavery. The Dravidians peoples chose not to submit and decided to flee from the Indus Valley. The newcomers, being herdsmen, had no knowledge of city management or desire to live in this manner and the ancient cities were plunders and abandoned. Those who stayed mixed in with the new population and in time altered the character of the Caucasian herdsmen to create the distinctive race of people as we see today in northern India and Pakistan. The majority of the Dravidians fled south and entered the area of other tribes that move created a domino effect of new and sometimes bloody conflicts.
The names of the man who built the Ark- Stephany Dalley, in her “Myths from Mesopotamia” provides us seven different names for the man who survived the great flood by building a boat. The Sumerian name is thought to be the oldest. 1) Ziusudra (Sumerian), 2) Atrahasis (Akkadian), 3) Utnapishtam/Ud.Zi, 4) Shuruppak, 5) Xisuthros (Babylonian), 6) Kzisuthros, and 7) Noah (Palestinian). Noa is modern Basque and simply means, “I go” or “I am going”.
Some words and their derivation from Basque:
- India: ini-adi-ia: inarroskatu-adiskidegarri-iaio: to exite-friendly-cheerful: “Exciting, friendly and cheerful”.
- Brahmin, .b.-.ra-ah.-.mi-in.
.b. ebc ebertar patriarch
.ra era eraspen devotion
ah . aha ahalguzti almighty
.mi ami amildu to oust
in . ine inertzia passiveness
“The devoted patriarch of the Almighty will oust passiveness”.
- manus (man) : man-us.
man man manatu, to give orders us
Usa usaiako habitually, by nature
“It’s his nature to give orders”.
The historic gods of Africa and Asia were of proto-Saharan origin. Concepts concerning these ancient gods or great ancestors were first developed around a gigantic lake that formerly existed in Middle Africa around 8000 years ago. This is supported by the fact that the Saharan cultures have looks like to those of Nubia. This lake was known in ancient times as lake Tritonis.
Lake Tritonis was situated in the Libyan Desert. Here as early as 7000 BC, there was a slow transition from hunting, to cattle pastoralism. The prehistoric appearance of a great lake in Libya has recently been supported by satellite pictures of the Eastern Desert, which indicate that a lake was located in the Qattara Depression of northwest Egypt. Around 10000 years ago pluvial conditions existed in Sahara, which led to the creation of numerous rivers beds now buried under tons of sand. Due to the abundance of streams, rivers and lakes in proto-Saharan Africa men who were powerful were men who could bind the powerful water of the numerous streams and rivers. Such men as these were recognized as demigods or great ancestors. For example in Sumer and Egypt gods and demigods were described as reed-boat navigators. In Egypt some of these great men that became gods include Thoth, and Osiris. The Egyptian Gods were Isis, Thoth, and Khepri. This is supported by Dravidian and Egyptian traditions. In ancient Egyptian tradition Ptah, came from the Sahara below Egypt in Kush. He found Egypt inundated, so he performed great works of dyking and and land reclamation so that the land was more habitable. The first Avatar or Tirumal of the Dravidians is regarded as a fish, which showed Manu, a boat to save himself from being drowned. Tirumal, is, the same as Vishnu of Sanskrit literature, another name for this god is Mayavon, Mayan and Mal. According to references in the Bhagavata Purana, a fish that is identified with the first Avatar (Sage) showed Manu a boat nearby to save himself from being drowned. In passing it is interesting to note that the emblem of the Pandya Kings of South India was the fish. Moreover in the Mesopotamian deluge story two Tamil words: nir ‘water’ and min ‘fish’ appear. Moreover, it is interesting to note that the Avatar or Sages of the Dravidians were also called Vellalar “lords of the flood” or Karatar “lords of the clouds”. These Sages earned these titles because of their skill in controlling the floods and in storing water for agricultural purposes.
According to the Olympian Creation Myth the earliest groups to appear on earth were the Libyco-Thracians. The Libiyans were proto-Saharans, as were the original Thracians, who were descendants of the Kushite and Egyptian troops established at Trace, by Sesostris (Thutmose III or Ramses II), when he conquered Asia and Europe. Apollonius Rhodius tells us that the goddess Athene was born beside lake Tritonis in Libya. The goddess Athene was called Neith by the Egyptians and Nia, by the Manding and Eteocreatans of Minoan civilization.
The early gods of these proto-Saharians included a serpent, the Sun: Hercules, Amon/ Aman/ Amna, and Kush or Khons. In Egypt and Kush, both Amon and Khons were depicted as coal-black in accordance with tradition. The Kashites also worshipped a ‘lord of the mountains’, which is analogous to Murgan, a Dravidian god in India. In India, Khrisna, Mal, Vishnu, and Kali were usually depicted as black in color. Kali was held to be form of Parvati/Durga consort of Siva.
In addition the Dravidian god of the pastoral region: Mullai was the black god Mayan, who was believed by the milkmaid and cattle herders. The earliest gods associated with the great hidden all powerful god were associated with the Sky. They believed in an unseen universal force called “Ko” or “Ka”.
As a result the proto-Saharans offered prayers to “Ka”, e.g. Egyptian Ka ‘vital force’, Dravidian Ka’-n, Manding Kani, and Magyar/Hungarian Kaan. This Ka, is also often associated with snakes, rain and the sky.
The god MAA: – Many of the proto-Saharan beliefs begined during the wet African Aqualithic period. For that their gods, as well as great ancestors, were referred to as ‘Fish’ or ‘reed-boat navigators’. This common god was called Maa, the man fish (of Eridu) in Mesopotamia and Syria, Amon/Aman in Egypt, the goddess Minakshi of Madura in south India. The manding Maa is referred to ancient inhabitants of the Africans continent, the invisible spirit of the watercourses. In Egypt Maa, meant divine truth and justice.
Among the proto-Saharans the name Maa, for their great ancestor/god related to many ethnonyms. The descendants of the Maa clan, claim descent from Maa, as evident in the name Mande Manding of West Africa. Mande means, Ma-nde or ‘children of Ma’. Some Dravidians of south India were also members of the Mande super clan, as illustrated in the Kannada, Telugu and Tulu. Dravidians tribes use the term Mande or Mandi to denote ‘people or persons’. The Sumerians called themselves Mah-Gar-ri,‘God’s glorious children’. The proto-Saharans in honor of great Maa, use the term ‘ma’, to denote greatness, for example Manding: Maga; Sumerian: Mag and Dravidians: Ma. The ma, element was also used on the names for their rulers.e.g. Menes of Egypt, in the Mankan of the Dravidians; and the Mansa of the Manding. The Mall, of the Dravidians is another form of Ma. Mal is the fish. He was the prototype of Fish god among the Pandyan-Tamils. Ama, Uma, Ammon, Amon, etc. seems to either refer to Mal’s consort. This goddess Amon is most ancient among the proto-Saharans. This goddess has many names including Athene or Neith, daughter (according to custom) of Poseidon, god of the Sea, and Demeter, the mark headed patroness.
The mother goddess Amma/Amon of Libya had her cult center at the sanctuary of Siwa. In ancient Egypt Amon was depicted as a ram with sphere. The god Amon was taken to Egypt.
The god Amon – The proto-Saharans early used the oxen with Sun dise between the horns as the symbol of their God, long before Egyptians worshipped Hathor. This god represented Amon/Amma of the Dravidians, Egyptians and Manding speaking people. Engravings in the Sahara, dating back to Neolithic times show the Solar disk with ‘Uraei’,which was associated with the worship of Ra/re in Egypt, when worm by the ram it represented Amon of Thebes. There are portrayal of this god from the Saharan sites such as Bou Alam and Zenoga. Archaeologists believe that these engravings date back to 4000 BC. This use of a ramgod, with different names among the various groups indicates that the proto-Saharans worshipped the same religion. For example among the Dogon of West Africa, the god Amma is a ram. In Yoruba Amon, means concealed the same as in Egyptians.
Amon/Athne – This worship of the ram resulted from important part of goat/sheep played in the Sahara as a source of food when the Sahara increasingly became drier. Siwa ( > Siva?),was recognized as the cult centre of Amon/Amma because in the Siwa depression archaeologists have found numerous conical and pyramidal sand covered hills that look like the monuments of ancient Egypt, including a Sphinx which resembles a gigantic ram.
Most scholars believe these monuments in the Siwa and Farafra Oasis are natural erosional formations called yardangs, they may really be the remains of monuments built by the proto-Saharans now covered with sand harden by the wind. The mother goddess was identified as either Amon or Athene. Amon and Amen of the Egyptians was primarily a Theban god whose shrine was rebuilt around 2500 BC, when the Theban kings defeated their northern foes. Amon became an important god in Egypt beginning with the 12th Dynasty. The priests of Amon, called their god ‘kings of Gods’. The Egyptians recognized Amon as a primeval god.
Amon was recognized as a hidden god, because he could travel. He was also seen as an majestic god. Sesostris 1, is credited with building the temple of Amon at Karnak, near Thebes. Sesostris 1, is also credited with conquering the whole sea coast of India, beyond the Ganges to the Eastern Ocean, as well as Europe as far as Thrace. Amon or Amen, was also the ancient god of the Kushites/ proto-Saharans because Ammenemes 1, or Amney 1 of the 11th Dynasty was from the Southern state of Ta-seti, the first Name (city/state) of Egypt.
Sesostris 1 (Thutmose 1), probably helped establish Amon worship in Europe and Asia. Sesostrasen Osiritasen of the 12thDynasty had established colonies along the Danube river and the Black Sea. Strabo, said that Sesostris 1, had conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia and Colchis. The symbolic name of Sesostris before the Egyptians conquered Greece the worship of Amon had already been established in the region. Garamante Manding speaking tribe took Amon worship to Greece. The goddess Athene was born beside lake Tritonis in Libya. Plato, identified Athene of Athens with the Libyan god Neith. Athene was worshipped by the Manding and other Western Saharans including the Linear, a people of Minoan Crete.
Athene is always associated with god Amon. Manding concept of N’ama as a dynamic spirit among the other Mande tribes point to an earlier worship of Amon, before the Mande accepted Islam. The Bambara call their ancestral god Gnia or Nia, this has affinity to the Greek term for the Libyan god called Neith. According to an inscription the goddess Nia=Neith. Some south Indian worship Amma=Amon. The priest of this cult is called chom or chorine, the Greeks called them Gymnosophists. This chom, of the Dravidians has affinity to Khon, the leading Kushite god.
The goddess Neith or Athene was known by many names. Some names related to Athene include Anaitis, Nanaia; Tanit of the Phoenicians; Nama in Albania; and the Sumero-Dravidian Ninni-Istar ‘the wild cow’. The proto-Dravidian and Sumerians had common religions. For example in the Sumer pantheon the emblem for Inanna, was the date palm, while Ninsun, Dumuzi, Anu and Ishkur were associated with bulls. The Dravidians equivalent to Anu, or bull worship was Anu-Rupa or Siva. The name of this clan in India was called Anu. Many of these Dravidians were also established in Armenia. In India ‘men with horns’ were given to Dravidian dignitaries who had crowns made of animal horns. These types of horned figure appear on many Harappan seals, as do serpents. The wearing of animal horns on crowns may date back to the time of Sesostris, because many Egyptian headdresses included horns.
In ancient Sumer, the goddess of the marriage rites was Ur. The goddess Ur, has analogies to the Dravidian cult of the goddess Parvati, in Siva temples.
Dumuzi – The Sumerians god Dumuzi, may be a great ancestor of the Tamil. Originally, Tammuz/Dumuzi was supposedly a king of Uruk. According to Sumerian tradition, Dumuzi lived in the neither world. The Harappan gods were represented as animals on seals. The unicorn seal depicts Mal (Vishnu or Kataval). The castrated bull on some Harappan seals was probably the goddess Kali. Siva was probably the short horn bull on some Harappan seals, while the Elephant represented Ganesha or Pillayer.
The Dravidian people are the descendants of the Harappan people. They call Ganesha: Pillayar. They recognized Pillayar as the shrewdest of animals. He is associated with Harvest time, abundance and good luck.
In the neither world of the Harappans there was a place called ‘Lapis Lazuli Mountains’. The Dravidians speakers founded the Harappan civilization and wrote the Indus Valley seals. The miners from the Indus Valley controlled the lazurite ores of Badakhshan and Afghanistan. The Dravidians exported these metals to Mesopotamia. Lapis Lazuli is found in metamorphic limestone or dolomite. This material was used to make many prestige items in the ancient world. The riches source of lapis lazuli was Badakhshan. Other lazurite deposits are found in the Himalayan region, and the southern end of the lake Baikal in Soviet Union. These centers of lapis lazuli were central factor in Dravidian colonization of central Asia.
The Sumerian story about Dumuzi, probably records the expansion of the proto-Saharan tribe from Mesopotamia into central Asia. Dumuzi, was exiled from the Sumerian city of Erech or Uruk, by the ‘demons’ of either of these cities. The phonetic laws operative in Dravidian offer no problem in deriving Tamil from Dumuzi. The marriage of the Dravidian cult goddess Parvati, in Siva temple indemnifies effectively the fruitfulness and prosperity of the Dravidian. People are similar to the holy marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna, the Sumerian mother-goddess. The Telugu, call the Dravidians aravaalu ‘noise makers’. This noise made by the Tamils, may have been ritual wailing, one of the major features of the Dumuzi cult in Sumer.
The ancient people exiled from Sumer to proto-Dravidian sites would explain the genetic unity of the Sumerian and Dravidian languages.The Sumerians called themselves proudly Sag-gigga ‘the black headed people’. In Tamil gig, means black. This points to analogy between Sumerian and Dravidian. During the reign of King Asoka, of India the Dravidians were called Kalinka, which appears to be an evolute of Sumerian (Sag) gigga. The Sumerians obtained lapis lazuli from the Harappo-Dravidians. The Sumerians called the Indus Valley Tilmun/Dilmun.
The God Krishna – Hercules was related to the Kushites and he is identified with Krishna and Mal of the Dravidians.
Poseidon – According to Greek traditions the father of Athene or Neith was Poseidon was the god of the Sea and his symbol was the trident.
The identification of Poseidon, with a ‘wooden mountain’ or boat (i.e. boat on the ocean is like a mountain on the sea) suggest that Poseidon, is another name for the Fish. It showed that Manu or Maa, the boat that saved mankind from the ancient great flood. The identification of the trident (related to the Serekh sign kingship in Egypt and Ta-seti), and the Fish emblem of the Pandyan kings show the spread of the Maa worship from middle Africa to India. Poseidon’s name Potidan with Pandyan suggests that this god was also popular among-Dravidians.
The identification of the Fish, with Maa and Manu, suggest that while the Fish or Poseidon was the inventor of boats, Maa or Manu built dams that controlled the water levels in areas settled by the proto-Saharans where they cultivated crops.
When Eudoxus of Cyzicus visited the coastal regions of Kush, Strabo reports that he called this area Posidonius, because the ancient people of Abyssinia and Somalia were said to be Icthyophagi, who worshipped the god Poseidon.
Siva – The Kushana and Tamilitti Dravidian speaking tribes, fled from Southeast Asia and China, through Tibet into south India, probably introduced Siva, into India. The symbol of Siva is three eyes (the all seeing), tiger skin, around with a battle-axe riding on a bullock. This indicates that Siva was the god of a people that had conquered the worshippers of Mal (as bullock and fish) and Murugan (who was symbolized by the Tiger) the god of the mountains. Siva is riding of the bullock, suggest defeat of the mother goddess (worshippers) and rise of a Patriarchal clan system and as a result of the many wars the Dravidians had to fight against the Indo-Europeans, Altaic speakers and Sino-Tibetan speakers in China and central and Southeast Asia.
Siva is also sometimes analogous to the fish god Mal. In south India Siva is referred to as the ‘Great Fish’, and represented by Fish signs.
Kumara – Dravidians god of youth is called Kumar or Skanda as described in the Puranic literature. Kumara is said to be son of Siva. This Kumara is analogous to the Egyptian god Horus, the son of Osiris.
Many of the proto-Saharan gods were great ancestors, e.g. Dumizi, Mal etc. Except for these great ancestors, the proto-Saharans had a great god, which they saw as being far away from them but definitely in control of events on earth. The structure of kingship depends much on the material conditions of life as experienced by the proto-Saharans. The proto-Saharans lived an idealized life where there were abundant food resources until at least 3000 BC. This situational experience led to the development of a semi-sedentary lifestyle. After 3000 BC, the proto-Saharans began to raise cattle in addition to collecting grasses for food. Because of the successful use of first goats/sheep and later cattle, this animal began to represents the symbol of their gods. This large quantity of food led to a proto-Saharan cosmology filled with buoyancy.
The Mesopotamian creation story survives on seven clay tablets found in Ashurbanipal’s library, in the saga known as ‘Enuma elish’ (named from its first two words, meaning ‘when on high’). The tablets are written in the 7th century BC, but the origin of the text is believed to go back to at least 1500 BC- a period when Babylon was the dominant city of the region. The story begins with two watery tumultuous beings, one male and one female, Apsu (sweet water) and Tiamat (salt water). From their union there came forth a variety of sea monsters and gods. In the ensuing Chaos (later defined) Tiamat, the female creator took control. Her descendants unite against her, choosing one of their members Madruk, the god of Babylon to lead them. Armed with a hurricane and riding a tempest drawn by four fiery steeds, Marduk meets Tiamat and her evil accomplice Kingu in battle. He kills them both. He splits the monstrous Corpse of Tiamat into two parts. From half of her he creates the heaven, from the other half the earth. In heaven he constructs a dwelling place for his colleagues, the gods. Realizing that they will need a race of servants, he uses the blood of Kingu to create the first man. This is followed by other necessary tasks, such as the creation of rivers, plants and animals.
Enuma Elish is a Babylonian epic describing theogony, cosmogony, anthropony, the the foundation of the city of Babylon, and the ascendancy of the god Marduk to the status of supreme deity, ruler of all of the gods of heaven and earth. It was written in Akkadian. As with Gilgamesh, archaeologists first discovered cuneiform tablets of the Enuma Elish in the 19th century CE among ruins in Ninevah; these fragments date from around the seventh C.BCE. Later fragments from around 1000 BCE were discovered in Ashur as well as fragment from around the 6th C.BCE fragments at Uruk and other locales in the ancient Near East. It also survives in an Assyrian version (which e.g. replaces the god Marduk with the god Ashur). As with Gilgamesh, the Babylonian (and later Assyrian) tale may build on older Sumerian traditions- in this case, Sumerian traditions about cosmology and the gods. As with other ancient near eastern texts, the precise authorship is unknown. Although the precise date too is uncertain, it is notable that there are parallels in early inscriptional evidence and that the purpose of the epic is to promote the preeminence of the god Marduk, on the one hand, and the city Babylon, on the other. It may originate, then, as early as the period of the rise of Babylonia (2000-1600 BCE) to power in the ancient
Near east, specifically during the first Babylonian Dynasty (1894-1595 BCE) when Marduk was established as the god of Babylon.
Enuma Elish is an epic poem written for oral recitation. Its specific purpose and use was liturgical (contrast, e.g. Gilgamesh): It seems to have been composed for recitation during the Babylonian New year celebration.
The New Year’s celebration took place for 10 days (the first to eleventh of the Babylonian month Nisan, which occurred in the spring). Enuma Elish was recited on the fourth day, likely in glorification of the god Marduk and the new age which he ushered in as well as in celebration, remembrance and reenactment of his victory over Tiamat – a paradigmatic fight between order and chaos that would have been especially poignant in the Spring, when Babylon was beset with floods that threatened to return the great city to the state of primordial watery disorder. From the description of Tiamat in these tablets, it is clear that she embodies the forces of disorder and chaos in the world as well as the water that lay at its beginning. In other words, creation is here conceived as coming from chaos but its completion lies in the process of over coming chaos, as affected by the victory of the young god Marduk. Likewise, in the cycle of seasons, Tiamat is winter and barrenness, who is conquered by Marduk, springtime and new life. (resonance with liturgical use of the poem). The liturgical use of the poem is also reflected in the place of Babylon, the place which Marduk chooses to be his home. It is given a privileged place in the cosmos as the home of the gods.
Gods of Enuma Elish:
Apsu: God of fresh water and embodiment of male fertility; existed prior to all else, together with his wife Tiamat and was the ancestor to the rest of the gods; he decides, however, to destroy them, peeved at their noisiness.
Tiamat: Wife of Apsu, goddess of the sea and thus embodiment of originary chaos; also one of the primeval parents of all of the rest of the gods; upon the murder of Apsu, however, she declares war on all the gods responsible and causes great destruction only halted by Marduk’s victory over her.
Mummu: Son of Apsu and Tiamat; god of the mist rising and hovering over the two bodies of water.
Lahmu and Lahama: Children of Tiamat.
Anshar and Kishar: Children of Tiamat, gods who represented the boundary between the earth and sky.
Anu: Son of Anshar and Kishar, god of sky.
Ea: (also called Nudimmud, Enki): Son of Anu; a wise and powerful god (associated w/magic), who kills Apsu when Apsu decides to destroy his divine progeny.
Damkina: Wife of Ea and mother of Marduk.
Marduk: Patron god of Babylon; the god of spring, symbolized both by the light of the Sun and the lightning in storm and rain; after his victory over Tiamat in the divine war initiated by the death of her husband, Apsu, at Ea’s hands, he creates the earth from her body, founds Babylon, creates humankind to serve the gods.
Kingu: Husband of Tiamat after the death of Apsu. The Enuma Elish was recognized as bearing close relation to the Jewish creation in Genesis from its first publication (Smith 1876), and it was an important step in the recognition of the roots of the account found in the Bible, and in earlier Ancient Near Eastern (Canaanite and Mesopotamian) myth.
"Manulife Blog" 